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Global house prices: Location, location, location

Our interactive guide to the world’s housing marketsTHE house-price boom that preceded the financial crisis was remarkable for its scope and scale. With few exceptions, there seemed only one way for prices to go: up. Things have been more diverse since then. In The Economist’s latest round-up of residential house prices, property markets are both reflecting and reinforcing the “three-speed” global economy. Prices are rising at a robust rate in developing countries like South Africa, where they are up by 11.1% over the past year. America’s battered housing market is recovering with price gains of 9.3% in the past 12 months. But house prices are falling across much of Europe. The housing bust is no longer largely confined to the distressed economies of southern Europe but has spread to core northern members of the euro area like the Netherlands, where prices have fallen by 7% over the past year. Outside Europe, Canada’s market looks particularly vulnerable to a housing bust because of overstretched valuations.The Economist has been publishing data on global house prices since 2002. The interactive tool above (updated May 16th 2013) enables you to compare nominal and real house prices across 20 markets over time. And to get a sense of whether buying a property is becoming more or less affordable, you can also look at the changing relationships between house prices and rents, …